manned and dispatched to Sandwich; and when, on March 29th, Parliament again met, it granted another aid, and ordered provisions to be sent to Sandwich and Southampton for the service of the fleet.[1]
The king went to Ipswich in June, when forty ships awaited him at Orwell.[2] About the tenth, when he was on the point of putting to sea, and when the horses had been already embarked, his Chancellor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, reported to him that the French had assembled an immense fleet off Sluis with a view to prevent him from landing; but as Edward disbelieved the intelligence, and declared that he would cross, no matter what might happen, the Chancellor returned the Great Seal. This induced the king to take further counsel; and he summoned Admiral Sir Robert Morley and Crabbe, probably the gallant Scotsman, John Crabbe, who had been so ill-treated by his thankless countrymen at Berwick seven years earlier. He asked them whether they believed that there would be danger in attempting the venture. As they were cognisant of the presence of the French fleet off Sluis, they were of the same mind as the Archbishop; whereupon Edward angrily said: "Ye and the Archbishop have agreed to tell the same story to prevent my crossing ... I will cross in spite of you, and ye, who are afraid where there is no fear, may stay at home." Both Morley and Crabbe declared that if the king went, he, and all who might accompany him, would run great danger; but that if he persisted, they would precede him, even to the death. The views of officers of such experience and bravery determined the king to renew his confidence in the Archbishop, to again entrust him with the Great Seal, and to collect more ships, as well from London as from the ports of the north and ;vest. In ten days, or, as Hemingford says, in seven, he had two hundred ships at his disposal, and more soldiers and archers than he needed.[3]
At length, on June 20th, the king embarked in the cog Thomas, Captain Richard Fylle,[4] attended by the Earls of Derby, Northampton, Arundel, and Huntingdon, the Bishops of Lincoln and Coventry, and the Lords Wake, Ferrers, his chamberlain, and Cobham, in whose presence the Archbishop of Canterbury, pleading
